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Vitamin D deficiency is widespread
Recommended dosages of essential vitamin are insufficient for children with cystic fibrosis
Issue date: 11/13/08
"This higher dose only transiently improves vitamin D levels," Mogayzel said. "Our new approach, which we just instituted in the clinic, is to increase the routine dose of vitamin D for every patient."
"We are using cholecalciferol (vitamin D3), which some researchers feel is better absorbed than the ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) that we were using to treat vitamin D insufficiency."
An additional roadblock to patients coping with CF is that their level of vitamin D varies according to the time of year. Sunlight is necessary for vitamin D to be synthesized in the skin. When the number of daylight hours decreases and temperatures drop, the majority of the population tends to spend more time indoors.
Thus 83 percent of patients with Cystic Fibrosis had deficient levels of vitamin D during this time of the year, compared to near-optimal levels during the spring and summer months.
Although optimal levels of vitamin D to treat those with CF suffering a deficiency are yet to be found, researchers are in agreement that higher levels will allow patients to survive well into adulthood more often than ever before.
Sufficient levels of the vitamin will help prevent such issues as bone disease and osteoporosis as the population of CF patients is able to survive for longer periods of time.
Lower levels of vitamin D affect even the general population. In August, researchers at Hopkins concluded that having lower levels of the vitamin led to an increased death rate as high as 26 percent, in addition to a greater death rate from heart disease and a higher chance of developing breast cancer or facing depression.
"We are using cholecalciferol (vitamin D3), which some researchers feel is better absorbed than the ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) that we were using to treat vitamin D insufficiency."
An additional roadblock to patients coping with CF is that their level of vitamin D varies according to the time of year. Sunlight is necessary for vitamin D to be synthesized in the skin. When the number of daylight hours decreases and temperatures drop, the majority of the population tends to spend more time indoors.
Thus 83 percent of patients with Cystic Fibrosis had deficient levels of vitamin D during this time of the year, compared to near-optimal levels during the spring and summer months.
Although optimal levels of vitamin D to treat those with CF suffering a deficiency are yet to be found, researchers are in agreement that higher levels will allow patients to survive well into adulthood more often than ever before.
Sufficient levels of the vitamin will help prevent such issues as bone disease and osteoporosis as the population of CF patients is able to survive for longer periods of time.
Lower levels of vitamin D affect even the general population. In August, researchers at Hopkins concluded that having lower levels of the vitamin led to an increased death rate as high as 26 percent, in addition to a greater death rate from heart disease and a higher chance of developing breast cancer or facing depression.
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